There she is. She can answer any questions about your papers afterward or online. Today, we get into one of my favorite chapters in the whole chapter onhat is the Richard Nixon, followed by gerald ford in this president s in constitution book. The nixon chapter was written by the late stanley cutler. He was a professor of history at the university of madison wisconsin. One of the great scholars of the watergate era. This chapter was one of the last things that he wrote before he passed away in 2015. As you can see from the introduction,wa Richard Nixon was a man of many paradoxes, born in a modest home in yorba linda, california that his father built using a sears kit. Quakerher was a devout and tried to instill in him a set of moral values. His father spent his time as an argumentative unhappy man. Those were the qualities also passed along to young Richard Nixon. After attending whittier college, a Quaker College about 17 miles from his home, he went to duke law school, failed to get jobs at the fbi and a new york law firm, which were his top choices, and reluctantly returned to california to practice law. There, he married selma pat ryan. Priceked in the administration in washington as world war ii broke out. He eventually secured a Navy Commission in the south pacific, but he didnt see any combat. That was to his regret, because people like john f. Kennedy became a war heroes and he did not. He return to california after the war. Won a close battle for congress in 1946, where he gained National Prominence as a tough congressman who supported the House Committee on unamerican activities, which im sure you have read about, alleged disloyalty and misconduct by those suspected of having communist ties. After two terms, he won a seat in the u. S. Senate, then became Dwight Eisenhowers vp, lost the battle for presidency against john f. Kennedy in 1960, ran for governor of california and lost, moved to new york city to practice law, and jumped back into the political arena in 1968. He calls it the great game, and he beat democrat Hubert Humphrey in a tight election that year. As you can see, nixon was almost pugilistic as a president. He viewed himself as someone who needed to fight to stay on top. He battled constantly with congress as he thought to expand his executive power. A great example in the book is attempt to assive pound funds in order to thwart pieces of legislations tapped by congress that he didnt like. In october of 1972, congress was theed to override nixons veto of amendments to the clean water act. The water was becoming extremely important in the country. Nixon refused to spend this money, he didnt agree with it. He defied congress, so ultimately, congress was forced to pass the impoundment control act of 1964 to control these sorts of abuses by nixon and his administration. Lot973, something we see a in the later chapters after Congress Learned that nixon had secretly bombed sites in cambodia without notifying congress, they passed the war powers resolution and clipped nixons wings by requiring the president to notify congress about any Armed Conflict within 48 hours, and if they didnt give approval within 60 days, he had to withdraw military forces. Reallyr powers act is hung around the neck of every president since nixon, constraining their powers. Reelectiona smashing victory in 1972 by wide margins. Before long, he is engulfed in the watergate scandal. White house operative are arrested carrying out a burglary inside the Democratic National headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in washington. Now, nixon is implicated in covering it up and offering to money tollion in hush keep the perpetrators quiet. Administrations as we discussed in class last time, i was privileged to write the biography of watergates special prosecutor, Archibald Cox. He was my constitutional law professor when i was at Harvard Law School. By the time i got to harvard in 1977, he had become a National Hero for standing up to Richard Nixon during the watergate crisis, subpoenaing the secret white house tapes that would prove or disprove nixons complicity in the watergate coverup. Ive done a lot of work on this area of american political history, and thats why its one of my favorite topics of all. I know most of your parents werent even alive at the time of watergate in 1973, 19 74, when this was taking place. I thought i would set the stage today and take you back to october of 1973, during the darkest months of the nixon presidency, when at this time, the wounds of watergate are fresh, the wounds of the vietnam war are just receding, and the country is being consumed by a growing scandal called nixo watergate. So we are going to show this video. October 1973, the senate has begun hearings investigating potential white house involvement at a burglary at the Watergate Hotel and a subsequent cover up. The big question, what did the president know, and when did he know it . Investigators learned president nixon has made secret tapes of every conversation in his executive offices. Special prosecutor Archibald Cox has subpoenaed the watergate tapes. On october 20, 1973, the stage is set for a political showdown unlike any in our history. One week earlier, october 12, 19 73, Archibald Cox wins a court order demanding the president surrender the watergate tapes. Nixon has one week to comply or appeal to the Supreme Court. Anday, october 15, nixon his chief of staff come up with a scheme. Cox cant have the tapes, but he can have an edited transcript to be prepared by 72yearold senator john stennis, and he can ask for no further evidence. Cox cannot accept the proposal, as fridays 5 00 deadline draws near, a showdown seems inevitable. 5 00 comes and goes with no word from the white house. Call at homegets a from nixons attorney general. Cox cannot have the tapes, and he must not seek any further information from the white house. Saturday, october 20, fearing the president will get away with an obstruction of justice, cox makes a difficult decision. He will hold a press conference and explain the implications of the case to america. Making his point, he uses a prophetic example. A president can always work as well, you remember when Andrew Jackson wanted to take the deposits from the bank of the u. S. And the secretary of treasury wouldnt do it, he fired him. Then he found a new secretary of treasury who wouldnt do it, and he fired him. Finally he got a third who would. At the white house, nixon and haig had been trying to persuade the attorney general to fire cox. They want him out of their hair. Richardson insists he has no legal grounds. Richardson is adamant. Nixon gets tough. Because of his refusal to carry out the president s policies, Elliott Lee Richardson has resigned. Nixon has discharged Archibald Cox, the special watergate prosecutor, and abolished his office. The Deputy Attorney general has been fired. Years writingen the cox book and studying this man. Figure an extraordinary in american law. Not just as Watergate Special prosecutor, but on a much broader scale. Ofwas a direct descendent roger sherman, signer of the declaration of independence and the constitution. He was an early law clerk to the famous judge. An advisor to young senator john f. Kennedy. Solicitor general in the kennedy administration. We talked about that last class and the johnson and kennedy civil rights cases. He argued many of those famous cases in the Supreme Court. And after watergate, he became chairman of common cause and fought to craft the ethics and Government Act of 1978 to try and reimburse some of the abuses of watergate. You can hopefully get a little bit of a glimpse from that film clip that coxs performance in watergate was the culmination of a lifetime commitment to the rule of law. I did hundreds of interviews working on this book with major figures he had interacted with. His integrity and principle thing he was known for was not a fake at all. It was how he had lived his whole life. It was especially on display in the way he interacted with attorney general elliot richardson, who was another one of these boston brahmins, a very kind of stayed fellow. Cox taught him at Harvard Law School after world war ii. How theysee the navigated these difficult times, richardson told me that when he picked cox, it was because of the basic integrity of the man rather than any political calculation or any prosecutorial experience, he had none. The men relied primarily on their instincts about each other in deciding how to deal with this growing watergate crisis instead of political calculations and maneuverings going on in most of washington at the time. Nowhere was that more evident than in the dramatic battle for the white house case. As you probably know from history books, cox subpoenaed those tapes to prove or disprove nixons complicity. In the watergate coverup they were essential to all of the defendants, including john dean, his white House Counsel, who said listen to the tapes. Nixon was talking about paying hush money. Elliot richardson told me he met with nixon multiple times to calm his fears about cox, and assume,ox would just for his right arm then do anything improper or politically motivated. Nixon scowled at him from across the desk, because he assumed political motive in everything. Cox really didnt want a constitutional showdown. He knew there was a legitimate question here, based on this notion of executive privilege, as to whether he did have the power to subpoena those tapes from the chief executive. I can tell you most people dont scholars at, but that time would have put their money on nixon in this battle. He had just won a major reelection victory. The argument was why should a special prosecutor who is tell aed, or the courts, president what he has to disclose from the inner sanctum of the white house . So it was very much an open question at this time. Incidentally, one of you guys asked me why nixon didnt just burn the tapes, thats what his speechwriter had advocated. It wasnt so easy, who would do it . If you burned the tapes, the act itself could be a crime, or, for nixon, an impeachable offense. They remained in a closet in the white house as the watergate drama unfolded. As tensions mounted, there really was a constitutional crisis looming here. You see president , as in stanley cutlers chapter, abruptly resigned, pleading no contender tent tax evading charges after he was caught accepting bribes in little white envelopes, both as Vice President and governor of maryland. The person next in line was speaker of the house carl albert. He had recently been drunk and in an Automobile Accident in front of a bar in washington. So he had no interest in being in the limelight. Fordxon appointed gerald to be his Vice President. Why did he do it . I think it was a very conscious, calculated decision by president nixon. Ford, any impeachment proceedings over watergate would go to the house of representatives. Ford was highly respected as the House Republican leader. He was also a very long time friend and stalwart supporter of Richard Nixon. Ford is appointed Vice President. As the battle over the tapes escalates, a federal judge john circa orders nixon to hand over the tapes. The court of appeals agrees with that, saying the judge, at a minimum, is allowed to listen to them in the privacy of his chambers to determine if there really are any National Security issues involved with them. The white house counters with what they called the stennis proposal, which is mentioned in the video. Senator stennis at this time was a 71yearold senator from mississippi who had hearing aids, he had hearing problems, he had recently been shot in a burglary attempt. The plan was he was the only person who was going to be allowed to listen to the tapes. Cox would then get summaries of the tapes, nothing else. It was a bold move. Nixon was basically going for broke here. Doctor. Iewed stennis he told me the senator was on heavy doses of codeine at this time because of the shooting at the burglary. He didnt want to do it, but felt there was no way he could say no to nixon. I also learned nixon had a plan to take stennis to camp david using one of his white house aides, who was a political operative. They were going to give him select pieces of the tapes to listen to, and that would be it, no one would ever see the tapes again. These summaries would go to the special prosecutor. In the midst of all of this, nixon orders everything that flies to go to the middle east to assist israel in the yom kippur war. This was a classic wag the dog moment. Nixon was taken the ultimate campbell. One of his aides said he was riding a wave, and he almost rode it all the way into shore. This gamble he took reached a crescendo with the saturday night massacre. After the famous press conference that you just saw, where cox refused to back down in seeking the tapes. Incidentally, it wasnt a total surprise that this was coming. Gave the example of Andrew Jackson and said a president can always work his will and talk about the situation with the national banks. We talked about that in the Andrew Jackson chapter. But there the gamble, were political consequences for him that he didnt bank on. His firing of Archibald Cox, because he was viewed as so honest and a man of integrity, backfired and unleashed a firestorm of public protest. Nixon was forced to hire a new special prosecutor, who subpoenaed even more tapes. Then the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of u. S. V. Nixon to decide this monumental constitutional question once and for all. What exactly was the legal claim nixon was making regarding the tapes . Why did he say these tapes were constitutionally protected . The president should be held to a different constitutional standard because they are in charge of so many important. Ssues he was talking about this notion of executive privilege and suggesting there was an absolute privilege. What does the Supreme Court say . Do they agree there is such a thing as executive privilege . They recognized executive privilege as a power, but they didnt say it was absolute. That is the key part, and a lot of people dont realize it. It. E was there was acknowledgment that is not an absolute power as nixon had said. And here, these tapes, the need for president ial secrecy was of thehed for the need tapes for the good of the criminal Justice System to determine if criminal conduct had taken place by nixon or anyone else. It was essential in any o other of the watergate trials, too. Interviewance to chief Justice Warren burger, who wrote the opinion in u. S. V. Nixon. He was appointed by nixon, so it was interesting to find out how difficult it was for him to write the opinion that he knew was probably going to bring down the president , because he says no person is above the law. That famous statement in u. S. V nixon. Not even the president. So im sitting in his chambers with him, and he had one of his law clerks take down a painting on the wall and bring it over to me. It had a picture of two law books and a kindle. Candle. He said those law books represented the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the trial of aaron burr. When he was a young law student studying at William Mitchell college of law, he was in this smokers club and they would take turn arguing famous cases. The cases he was in charge of arguing where the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the trial of andrew burr. Chief Justice Burger said to me i wrote that opinion 40 years ago. He was a great artist and a sculptor, he painted that picture when he was in law school because those cases were so important to him. He said it was a very easy matter, because those cases stood for the proposition that no person, not even the president , is above the law. This is a good reminder that just because burger was a republican appointed by nixon, but you cannot assume that justices on the Supreme Court are going to vote on the basis of political affiliation, something that the public often believes. They have their own individual commitments to the constitution principleswn sets of quite apart from any political affiliation. That was one instance where chief Justice Burger exercised that. Obviously, the white house tapes were damming. They contained the smoking gun in which nixon offered to pay 1 million in hush money to cover up the watergate crime. And there was his infamous 18. 5 minute gap in one of the key tapes at a key moment that suggested there had been a deliberate erasure. The result of the revelations in those secret tapes was so dramatic that impeachment resolutions were drafted in the house. Obviously before the house could even get to impeaching richard party,members of his own including senator barry goldwater, went to the white house and said they could no longer support him. On august 8, Richard Nixon flew away in a green helicopter, the first president in American History, and all of these president s we have studied, to resign in disgrace. So that begins another dramatic moment in american constitutional history as we move into the presidency of gerald ford. It lasted less than 2. 5 years. President fords pardon of Richard Nixon becomes one of the seminal moments in the history of the american presidency. I do want to ask you, just before you read this chapter about gerald ford, what was your general impression of him as a president , as a historical figure . I really feel like hes not so much a bad president , but he didnt really have the chance to be a president. He was also piggybacking off of lincoln, he was essentially a filler. He wasnt elected to fill the office. He came in right at the end of the vietnam war. He didnt really have any chance to do anything. I wouldnt say he was terrible, but he wasnt really meant for this position. That is great. We will have to make a decision whether he did do anything good. I want you to sit back for a few more minutes and we will go back to this news that shocked the world as the events of the watergate scandal reached a surprise crescendo in september of 1974. I have learned already in this office that the difficult decisions always come to this desk. Concerndent, my primary must always be the greatest good of all of the people of the United States whos servant i am. As a man, my first consideration is to be true to my own convictions and my own conscience. My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that i cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only i as president have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book. R. Ford, i, gerald president of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by article ii, section 2 of the constitution, have granted, and by these free,ts do grant, a full, and absolute pardon onto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from july 9, 1974. Through august from thiscan see chapter, which is written by jeffrey crouch, who is a professor of history at american university, ford had been a loyal supporter since he and nixon began their careers together in 1948. He was actually getting ready to retire in 1973 when he was plucked out of relative obscurity to become Vice President. Now he is in the oval office. You have to picture this. He is surrounded mainly by nixon loyalists, asons his own advisor. That presents some real problems. From days of his taking office on august 9 of 1974, journalists start swamping ford with questions about his intentions, if he is thinking about pardoning Richard Nixon. Not exactly what he was looking forward to in the first days on the job as president. It washand, ford knew crazy to even consider pardoning nixon. The country had been ripped apart by watergate. By this point, nixon was perceived as a firstrate villain, even by Many Republican leaders. One of fords top advisers told me he advised ford categorically not to do it. He said you will be eaten alive, your political future, if you decide to run for president on your own in 1976, will be shot to hell if you pardon nixon. On the other hand, this is hopefully what you can see from this chapter, ford had a strong sense of what he thought he should do. He is a man who grew up of very modest origins in the midwest. He was the adoptive son of a paint and varnish salesman in grand rapids, michigan. He put himself through college on a football scholarship, then attended Yale Law School by coaching football. He was known as honest, square john, straight shooter in the house of representatives for 25 years. Now he had a problem. Because after talking with his closest friends and his wife, he concluded pardoning nixon was really the only solution to this mess. The country had been obsessed with watergate for nearly two years. If nixon was then criminally thatcuted, ford feared first of all, the country would be dragged through the mud for several more years. Secondly, and may be more selfishly, if you want to say that, he felt he would never get any of his own policy initiatives accomplished as president. Thats where this segment of this amazing story begins. Gerald ford takes over the white house with only a days notice. He is surrounded by aides and advisors who are primarily nixon loyalists. Those include chief of staff Alexander Haig, general haig, attorney general william saxby, nixons fifth attorney general because they kept resigning due to the watergate scandal. In california, nixons former press secretary, ron zager, is acting as nixons handler from afar. In the midst of this, a big issue arises. What is going to happen to nixon s records and tapes . These are key evidence in all of the watergate trials of nixons coconspirators in the white house. They are scheduled to go forward in a few months. There are only a few people surrounding president ford that he can trust. Bob hartman, his chief speech writer, a longtime friend from grand rapids, now counsel to the president , and a young lawyer named Benton Becker. He was special counsel to president ford. Most of the figures in this drama died years and years ago, but one of them, Benton Becker, who president ford trusted completely, just passed away a a few years ago. I was privileged to work with decade,more than a hopefully helping to preserve this story for history. Becker had been a young lawyer who did legal work for ford on congressional committees. Ford was so impressed with him, when he became a Vice President , he was involved in his confirmation hearings. Now in his first month in the white house, he brings becker into the inner circle. I did a program with Benton Becker at the Chautauqua Institution in new york, and also here at duquesne on the 40th anniversary of the pardon. Those were the last two programs Benton Becker participated in. Through his firsthand accounts, we have been able to piece together and better preserve this incredible sequence of events of what happened. We also have a contemporaneous memo that was lost in the archives of the Gerald Ford Museum from 1974 detailing Benton Beckers firsthand accounts of everything he went through. So heres what we now know. Within 20 four hours of nixon leaving the office, ford picked is e phone and called h the former chief of staff, now fords chief of staff, general Alexander Haig, and he says nixon called haig and said send those boxes out here. During his time in the white house, nixon had accumulated a huge storehouse of documents and these activated tapes in the white house that had been revealed during watergate. Ofre were actually 900 reels tape, and literally thousands of boxes of documents. Toldny, the secret service me they were afraid the fourth floor of the executive Office Building was going to collapse from the weight. Benton becker was finishing up briefing president ford one day, and Alexander Haig is picking off a to do list of things. He kind of nonchalantly says at the end of one of his thoughts, as casually as if he is ordering a cup of coffee, oh yes, and we are sending president nixon his papers, he wants them. Tracksstopped in their when he said that and said who and those records tapes . Ford himself was keenly aware they were evidence in the watergate trials. There were afraid of letting them out of their sight. Ford said none of this should be left leave the white house until we get a ruling from the Justice Department as to who owns them. Four days later, the same group met with william saxby, nixons holdover attorney general, and assigns one of his young lawyers. This topic of researching who owned the tapes and writing an opinion letter. It turns out that Young Department of justice lawyer was a present named Antonin Scalia a, later a justice of the u. S. Supreme court. Ote opinion scalia wr concluded there was no definitive law on the subject, but by custom and practice, these materials belong to the president. Rome president s kept thei papers, some had it sold them, like ulysses s grant, to earn money. Chilly arthur burned his papers before he died. It was a very common practice. Saxby took the position that if ford didnt send the papers and tapes out to nixon, it would be thumbing his nose at precedent at the history of how president s treated this. Ford sat back in his chair and said to Benton Becker, what do you think about this . Becker replied mr. President , i dont care what great things you accomplish in the next 3. 5 years left in your time in office, if you send those records and tapes to california, the only thing the people will remember is that gerald ford committed the last act of the watergate coverup. Becker said you could have heard a pin drop at the moment, and wondered if it was the last speech he would be delivering in the white house. Ford was quiet for a minute, and when saxby tried to talk, he waved him off and told him to be quiet. Finally, ford said those papers and tapes are staying here, they belong to the american people, and im not giving them up. This,tal moment in all of and a pivotal moment, because at that moment, an animus started to develop between the nixon people and his advisors, and ford and his team. Theas a few days later that president called becker into his residence in the white house and said in strict confidence im thinking about pardoning Richard Nixon. I need to know the legal ramifications. Becker almost fell over, he thought it was crazy. But it was not his job to tell president ford what he should do, his job was to find out how broad the president ial power was and what landmines might exist. For instance, could he pardon nixon for crimes he had committed before he was convicted of anything . Would it cover federal crimes only, state crimes . There were a whole host of issues left unopened. What Benton Becker discovered is that, and we have already talked about this, the pardon power was enormously broad. It gave the president almost unbounded power, except it did only apply to federal crimes, not state crimes. Otherwise, the president could even pardon for crimes that had not been committed without a conviction. Resigned before he was impeached. So remember that provision in the constitution that says a pardon doesnt work for impeachment, didnt apply, because nixon had not been formally impeached. The most significant thing Benton Becker discovered that he shared with only a couple of fords closest advisors, was fromthere was a 1915 case the time of the Woodrow Wilson administration called bernick v. The United States. Do you remember from reading back in those early chapters . This case involved an effort by president wilson to get testimony from an editor, a newspaper editor in new york, in front of a grand jury about who had leaked some information. When the editor invoked the fifth amendment, his rights selfincrimination, president wilson thought he would outsmart him, so he called him back into the grand jury and had a pardon waiting for him. Fifth you plead the if youve already been pardon for what you have done . He refused to accept the pardon. He said it sounds like im guilty, i dont want to take it. The case went to the Supreme Court, and they agreed. They said a pardon carries with it an imputation of guilt, and acceptance of a pardon is an admission of guilt. So becker went in to see president ford and told him about what he discovered. With their secretly white House Counsel and the Watergate Special counsel to see if he would publicly oppose a pardon if ford granted one. That would be a big problem if he stood in the way. He said he was concerned already with the extent of publicity from the televised watergate hearings. He wasnt sure nixon could get a fair trial ever, and he did, it would be years from now. He signaled, and my own research disclosed, that he signaled his agreement to pardon, even though his own staff on the Watergate Special prosecution force didnt know and would have been appalled if they knew he was agreeing to this. So ford made a decision next to send Benton Becker out to california. A piece of the story very few people know about. He went out there with nixons personal attorney, a gentleman ard,d herbert jack will who had been Deputy Attorney general under Robert Kennedy in the kennedy Justice Department. Highly respected. Beckers job was to try and hammer out a deal on those records and tapes. Deedct, he carried a draft with him. The plan was to give those over to the u. S. Government to hold. Nixon would be free to access them to work on his memoirs he was talking about doing. Becker was also supposed to ain the ramifications of the legal ramifications of the case to nixon, and tell him accepting the pardon would amount to an admission of guilt. Ford said i want you to sit down facetoface with him and make sure he understands this. With that direction, becker flies off in a government plane with jack miller headed for san clemente, not knowing where this was going to take them. One thing that is curious is why president ford would select this young lawyer, who was really untested in many ways, to negotiate one of the dicey is deals in american political history. It was largely because nobody knew him. The Washington Press corps that was watching nixons san clem day, when24 hours a he went driving through the gate, nobody knew who it was. Ford wanted complete secrecy and wanted to get three things out of this. He wanted a deed for the records and tapes, he wanted some sort of acknowledgment from nixon that he had acted incorrectly, perhaps illegally in the watergate affair, and he wanted an express acknowledgment from nixon that he understood acceptance of a pardon was admission of guilt. Becker was viewed as the best hope to get those three things. This is where becker has contemporaneous notes. The first day was a total bust. He never even saw nixon. His people, jack miller and ron sickler, who was working as his handler, would talk to him and come back and say he likes the idea of a pardon, these other things are kind of problematic, lets deal with them later. Becker later learned that while he was flying to california in house,ne, from the white general haig called nixon and let him know what to expect and said do not relent on these things, he will give you the pardon, dont cave in, dont agree to anything else. So you have to realize, the inner circle of the nixon presidency was now working against president ford secretly to undermine him. Becker found a secure phone to call president ford. When he reported what was going on, ford was angry. He said i am ready to give this guy a pardon that could foreclose any chance of me ever becoming president in my own right, and hes not even going to agree to these basic things . More daygive them one and thats it, if it doesnt happen now, its never going to happen. The next day, the nixon team does the same dance around, they had drafted a letter of acceptance from nixon for the pardon, and it was sort of in the third person. It said the white house staff did some terrible things and didnt serve me well as president. So not even a hint of contrition, which is what ford was looking for. Becker was livid. He went out and found a phone and call for a government plane. He suspected the nixon people were bugging the phone, so he called to let it be known he was going to be leaving. He walked into see them and said i have talked to president ford, and this negotiation is over today if we dont work these out, and i walk out the of a pardonscussion is walking out the door with me. So dont come back when your client is indicted, in jail. This is either now, and these are the terms, or thats it. That got their attention. A little bit later, jack miller came back with a signature on the deed of gift, and also a new statement from nixon that was starting to sound conciliatory and said i was wrong in dealing with the watergate matter, should have dealt with it more for rightly, particularly when it got to a judicial stage. So they were getting close to what they wanted. This was the moment when becker was supposed to meet with president nixon and explain the legal consequences of accepting the pardon under the case. And for me, this is a chilling part of this story. He goes in to see, he is taken in to see nixon in this cramped little barren office. According to Benton Beckers contemporaneous memo, he described nixon as nervous, almost frightened of meeting him, said he had an impression of a man sitting in front of him as one of freakish grotesque nest. His arms and body were so thin and frail as to project an image of a head size disproportionate to a body, the famous nixon jowls were exaggerated, the hair disabled, and reminiscent of advanced age. Nixon looked 20 or 30 years older than the 61 years of age he was. So becker went through the legal implications for almost one hour. At the conclusion of that, after shaking hands with the expresident , he walked outside, got into a car to go to the airport, and before he could even close the door to the car, ron sickler ran out and said come out, president nixon wants you to come back, he wants to give you something. So becker went back into this room. Nixon is sitting there by himself. He said i wanted to thank you. We have had a lot of bullies over the past year. You at least warrant a bully. Nixon pulled out this little white box and said i would have liked to do more. And he looked around the empty room, nothing on the walls, nothing anywhere, and he said but they took it all away from me, and handed him this little box. Him and said to himself, im getting the hell out of here. He went to the car, drove to the airport, opened the box, and there was this pair of cufflinks with the president ial seal on them, supposedly the last pair that nixon had. Those are now displayed in the gerald r. Ford museum. That night, he gets back to washington, briefs president ford, ford schedules the press conference for the next day. Neither of them slept that much that night. The next morning at 8 30, which is 5 30 california time, ron zigler called and said he changed his mind, hes not going to sign the statement, he wants to go back to the original statement. The statement that originally blames it on the staff. Becker says thats fine, i will tell president ford, im sure he will plan to cancel the press conference for today. Zigler backed off. At 11 00 in the morning, president ford sat behind his desk in the oval office and granted the pardon, which you saw on that video. What you couldnt tell, on the other end of the camera watching that whole time was Benton Becker, one of the few people who knew everything that happened here. To show you a brief clip that tom brokaw, the iconic news anchor for cnbc, did for us at any event at duquesne for the 40th anniversary in 2014. Ascovered the pardon for nbc these events unfolded 40 years earlier. Here he is as he talks about his recollections of that incredible time. How will i remember gerald fords pardon of Richard Nixon . The disgraced president who was forced to leave office because of watergate. It was a sunday morning. The social climate in washington was very relaxed. All that we had been through in that city. 1973, spiro agnew had been forced to resign. Then we had the long seizure of watergate, the Supreme Court decision that, tortured explanation i Richard Nixon, and ultimately, his resignation. There was an enormous amount of relief. Not just in washington, but across the country such goodwill from gerald ford, who seemed to always do the right thing. I was at a brunch at the home of the housing secretary when we began to hear that gerald ford was about to pardon Richard Nixon. It seemed like a signal that had come from outer space, some kind of alien environment. Tables were overturned, people were rushing to the office, to file the story, to figure out what was going on. The phones were ringing off of the hook in the white house. It was instantly and in norman thusly and unpopular and enormously, and unpopular decision. I believe president ford, and essentially decent man, had prepared the country in some fashion by saying im going to ask president nixon to acknowledge his wrongdoing to find some way for him to say to the country how long he was, because he had not done that, and i will consider a pardon, a conversation that will go on in any prosecution. He didnt do that, he wanted to put it behind him as quickly as possible. Anderved him well as a man, probably in the long run as a politician. He had no guile, there was no hidden agenda. At nbc, the calls came in and were almost universally critical. The country thought the president should pay a higher price for all he put the nation through. The final analysis, how will history treat all of this . It is always hard to know. My own judgment is gerald ford, his standing in history will be unsullied by his decision to pardon Richard Nixon. People will talk about it, but by and large, they will find him as a very competent caretaker who found himself in the highest office of the land in the most unexpected circumstances. And Richard Nixon, could there be any greater punishment than to have to be the only president in American History forced to resign because of his illicit illegal behavior in the oval office and beyond . That was torture for Richard Nixon, it will never ever be eased by a pardon, by a president , or by the rewriting of history. So we should keep that in mind, as well. What i remember most of all is that in washington in those days, you woke up in the morning and had no idea what would happen next. There was nothing more stunning than to hear that the president of the u. S. Was about to pardon the former president of the United States. Im tom brokaw, nbc news, new york. I have to tell you that most americans thought the pardon was the wrong decision at the time. It sent the wrong signal that a powerfu powerful politicians like nixon were above the law, while normal citizens would have gone to jail for the same thing. Certainly Archibald Cox felt that way at the time. Ford understood that criticism, but he sincerely believed pardoning nixon was the best thing for the country, which is what he told me multiple times when i first interviewed him in 1995. I want to tell you about that interview. I met with ford in a hotel in new york city. It was part of my work on the Archibald Cox book. I wanted to get his side of the story, because i thought the pardon was a bad idea, Archibald Cox thought it was a bad idea. He was impassioned when he talked about it. As he talked, he pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a little scrap of paper and read it. It was a citation to a Supreme Court case, burdick versus u. S. From 1915. I have to tell you, i was at this time teaching constitutional law, i had never heard of the case. He explained that this case stood for the proposition that acceptance of a pardon was an admission of guilt, and even though the press and the American Public had not digested this, didnt understand it, it was very much a part of his decision. In fact, he said he sent Benton Becker to california largely to explain the ramifications of that facetoface, kind of like giving nixon his miranda rights. I99, when i organized really became interested in this topic after interviewing ford and did a First Program at duquesne in 1999 to talk about the ford pardon of nixon and to reevaluate it. One of the people who was able to attend was nixons personal attorney, herbert jack miller. At this program, he acknowledged for the first time, with permission of the nixon family, that this story was accurate. Not only was it accurate, in fact, miller said for the first time that nixon tried to not accept the pardon itself, because he didnt want to admit guilt. They had to actually have a Heated Exchange over a period of time before he agreed to accept the pardon. So ford felt he had gotten for the country what it most wanted, some admission, acknowledgment of guilt by Richard Nixon. And somehow, that fact really remains lost to history, as far as most people are concerned. It is also really important to understand that there was this strong desire by ford and his team to deal with nixons records and tapes. That cant be separated out from the pardon issue. Even though the press didnt Pay Attention to that. Ford was extremely worried that if those records and tapes were shipped out to california, they would go up in a big bonfire. I think he was probably right about that. Today, when you think about it, the only reason we have this rich repository of history that has allowed us to understand that period of history, is that ford brokered this deal to hold those papers in the trust of the National Government until congress could act and pas the president ials records act, which makes all of these papers for nixon and subsequent president s accessible to the public. There was also this big issue that weighed on ford heavily whether nixon could ever receive a fair trial if he was indicted and prosecuted. My own Research Confirms there were serious questions about that. And you may know, ford actually went to visit nixon in the hospital. He had phlebitis. He actually had concerns he was going to die. So there were many factors going on here. But that story wasnt known to the American Public. So the honeymoon did end for president ford after that decision on the pardon. It was the end of the honeymoon for him and his whole family, who had really been the darlings of the media at first, but were now part of this grand betrayal. When we did the 25th Anniversary Program here at duquesne, one of the speakers i had come speak was fords son, steve ford. It was very moving. He told me and the audience at that time that when all of this was happening, he was still a teenager. His father sat him down and explained that there were some circumstances like this where grace and mercy were necessary, just like in a family. It was really very touching. Thinkmy view, i really do that gerald ford did what he thought was right in granting the pardon, based on all of the information he had. Decision thatngle probably kept him from becoming president in 1976. One of the stories that really hit home for me is when i talked to bob hartman, one of his closest advisors, he told me he was sitting at a meeting with president ford and begged him, cant you wait for a couple of months past the november election . It will kill republicans in the 1974 election and also do damage to you in 1976 if you pardon him. If shook his head and said i decide to give Richard Nixon a pardon, wont have anything to do with politics. Too many decisions were made in this office in the white house based on politics over the last five years. If i do did win the election of 1976 by a small margin. The pardon of Richard Nixon was certainly a factor. One of the key factors with many voters that caused ford to lose. One thing interesting to think about is why didnt fords communication people get this story out there better . All of the stuff we heard today and the stuff that was revealed in the next couple decades. Ford had been in office for a month at this time. He had no real inner circle. He was still operating with nixon people for the most part. Secretary resigned in protest when ford gave this pardon. That kind of overtook the news and overshadowed everything else. There was no internet back then, no cable news. They galloped away from there and there was no way to put the pieces back together to explain the story. Thisn studying of all of suggests ford and his people were walking on eggshells. It was obvious that nixon would turn over his papers and tapes and that he would agree to a pardon. Especially given nixons mental state at that point, they were afraid if they pushed too hard on all of this they might snap and the whole deal could go down the drain. Saying, itoff doesnt apply to state crimes. Statewas potentially crimes in california also. They could not press for too much of an admission or nixon could be incriminating himself. Time ford feltst comfortable talking about all of this, he made little mention about this in press conference. Was when hise memoirs wont come out and talked openly about the case. All of these factors that were force in making this happen. I was fortunate as part of this to have a chance to interview president ford at the ford library and museum in grand rapids. He died in 2006. Thought it was fitting before coming to a pros a close to hear what president ford himself said about the pardon. Good afternoon president ford , it is an honor to join you today is the 25th anniversary of the controversial decision to pardon your predecessor in the white house. I have just a few questions as we look back on the event in history. Dwarfsue that seemed to all others in the eyes of the American Public was did president ford cut a deal in advance to pardon him . Can you answer that directly . Was there a deal of any sort . I testifiedrd before the House Committee that there was no deal, period. I think those were my exact words. I could assure you some 25 years absolutelythere was no credibility to that allegation. I was going to be president without any question of a doubt. President nixon was either going and forced tod resign or he was going to resign on his own as he did. I was impervious of any comments of him and myself. Your you look back on presidency with the benefit of 25 years, i ask you this question, would you pardon Richard Nixon again . Ford based on some additional observations, testimony, etc. To gok today if i had through the same process with certainlynce, i would execute a pardon on his behalf. There was no doubt when i did that i was doing the right thing. Regardless of what Many Americans said, it was absolutely unequivocally the right thing to do for the country. Look at it from that point of view. You have to understand why it took the action that i did. Did we learn anything more recently from the clinton scandal this past year . Did it shed any light on what the nation might have endured in 1974 if president nixon had not been pardon but rather subject to fullblown criminal prosecution . Ford the clinton difficulties i think illustrate that the impeachment process is a very difficult one. The committee, you have to have house action, which means a fullblown debate. Then the case has to go before the United States senate. Of actual question conviction or otherwise. In the nixon case, if there had been an Impeachment Vote by the House Committee on judiciary followed by a vote on the house of representatives with all the , it wouldve been an atmosphere in the United States precluded the congress and my white house from trying to solve the basic orblems we have at home internationally with the cold war. You are as comfortable as we sit here today with the decision as you were when you sat in the oval office 25 years ago today and spoken to the Television Cameras . President ford no question about it. Im even firmer that i did the right thing for the country. Im pleased to see the more recent full polls have that more and more people are agreeing with me than they did 25 years ago. That is the benefit of history. Thank you very much for sitting down to discuss this historic event. President ford thank you very much. Video andatching that didr reading this chapter, that change any minds . Did you guys change your mind about whether fords granting was the right thing to do for the country . I do think it was the right thing. Knowing how the American Public , whileo react to things technically it was the right move, it is definitely never going to be the popular move because nixon just avoided justice and it will be frustrating. Anyone else . I think it was what you could use for the president ial pardon. You could use and at the highest level. It helped heal the american people. Like president ford was acting on future logic. That is a good way to look at it. When you talk about healing the wastry, his autobiography called a time to heal. That programber that we did that was shown in cspane 1990s aired on nationally. After that weekend, i was in my office, my secretary called and said some guy is on the phone and said it is president ford, him in, iaid send will talk to them. President ford was calling to thank me because he spent all of those years feeling the country did not understand this. , people can understand why he made this really difficult decision. Story andly, this this verdict case was one of the main reasons i decided to work on this constitution book. I wanted to show how the threads in history connected and shaped a president s power. You saw when we had the chapter on Woodrow Wilson, we inserted the story in the 1915 segment. You can see to ford how it reappears and shapes history and president ial power. I wanted to write this book to asw how a president s powers they evolved under a constitution since George Washington are very much about these unexpected events. It is just as important as the sparse words in the constitution in article two. There was less than 1000 words that defines the president s powers. This ties history together and tells an amazing story. One can certainly debate the wisdom and the timing of fords decision. When is way more support you say people would probably not come around to this. There is a lot more support now for the proposition that however awkwardly execution it was that the pardon probably was the right thing to do for the country. ,n fact, before he died president ford was given the and presented by ted kennedy, who was one of the most added and opponents of the pardon at the time. Wasecognizes that it really an act of courage. Him meant a huge amount to after all of those years of kid a schism criticism. It is that the essence of leadership involves making when theyeven encounter the prevailing winds of public opinion. Ton when people do want probably burn them at the stake. To theen it runs counter own advisers, the true test of hope you can see from these two chapters comes when an individual faces giving up his or her job. Her internal or compass. The only way one has the strength or character to meet that spotlight of history suddenly shines down on you is to spend your whole life making decisions on the issues big and small. Otherwise this enormous political crisis comes in your under so much public scrutiny. Make really difficult to those tough calls in those moments. Gerald ford and Archibald Cox both made their marks as leaders and as public figures because they had the strong compasses to guide them. They drew on those at these crucial and lonely moments. That, they never would have succeeded at that moment when they were placed in the position in history. But we look back on the ford presidency, it only lasted 2. 5 years. There is a lesson worth reflecting from all of us about anyone who cares about our system. Forcially for you guys students who will be the next generation of leaders, it will be important to think about these lessons. As we get through this Coronavirus Health crisis, hopefully it will pass before long. I hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy there and even though we are doing this using technology, it is great to see you all there. Dont forget your paper outlines you to get to the doctor and we will gather for our next remote class when we talk about jimmy carter and ronald reagan. See you then. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you could watch lectures in history every weekend. We take you inside College Classrooms to learn about topics ranging from the American Revolution to 9 11. That is saturday at midnight eastern on cspan three